I doubt there is a single reader of this blog who is unaware of the drastic reduction in legal aid for those attending magistrates courts. In 2019/20 the criminal legal aid budget in England and Wales was £897 million compared with £896 million in the previous year. Criminal legal aid peaked in 2003/04 at over £2.6 billion. Between 2005/06 and the most recent financial year it has fallen by £676 million in real terms. Civil legal aid has also been cut since 2005/06. After peaking at £1.2 billion in 2010/11 it fell to just £651 million by 2015/16.
Not only does financial strangling of the legal aid availability reduce the numbers of lawyers in court it imposes a higher standard of performance from presiding justices to ensure that justice is done and seen to be done. It has led to a reduction of the numbers of lawyers financially able to undertake work as duty solicitor. The biggest cuts were introduced in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 but provision has been stripped away for decades. Hourly rates for legal aid haven’t changed in 20 years. And to counter this appalling lack of resource for those who most need it the weasels in Petty France last week announced that the Ministry of Justice has most generously provided £3.1 million to a range of regional and local services. This miniscule amount is not to pay for legal aid per se but to various groups and organisations such as advice centres. Once again the MOJ and its overfunded press and PR department is attempting to mislead a public that will not care a figg until they are faced with a court appearance. What was truly the finest justice system in the world is now not even a poor shadow of its former self. Shame on all involved from Tony Blair to Boris Johnson; from Lord Irvine to Robert Buckland.
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